2012 - The Year Of The Job

It is often said that things are darkest before the dawn. When we look back in the rear view mirror at the passing of 2011, we find little solace in the fact that we were not alone when it came to navigating the stressful demands of a great depression and the transformative social unrest it has given rise to.

The plight of struggling Americans all across the country this year gone by has been disheartening. And their plight has, for the most part, been shamefully minimized as elected officials from every constituency continue to dismiss the public demonstrations of their voting population. Nor have any of the people’s protests prevented our legislative representatives from secretly re-routing our resources away from the very infrastructure that is necessary to improve the livelihoods for those who embody the backbone of America.

Instead, the preferential beneficiary of these resources appears to be the ‘new people’ -- a ‘new people’ furtively created by the Supreme Court, and comprised of the well-endowed institutions known collectively as Corporate America.

Every living and breathing citizen has a right to contribute and take up space, and it’s time we occupy our space with confidence.

Power to the real people! Stand up and be noticed in 2012 because everyone knows it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.

A partial glimpse of a larger work in progress. Oil on canvas.

© Copyright by KA Collins.

To begin your collection of original works of art by Artist K.A. Collins, visit the artist’s website for more information at ArtistKACollins.net. For smaller samplings, simply click over to K.A.’s Etsy Studio.

Any illusions that the American people tried to hold on to in 2011 appear to have been profoundly shattered. Can we really trust the powers that be to better navigate our sinking ship in 2012? ‘In The Rear View Mirror’ March 31, 2009 posting "The American Myth”.

Walker's Waterloo

Something is rotten in the state of Wisconsin, and it’s not the moldy bleu cheese. Nor is it the lingering stench of unwashed protestors who filled the Capitol building-turned-campground last month. The rottenness in Wisconsin seems instead to be emanating straight out of the governor’s mansion for there’s a new man on the throne and he's busy throwing his sceptre around.

In mid-January, Wisconsin’s newly elected GOP governor and Tea Party favorite, Scott Walker, blindly hit the job post running. Walker wasted no time in outmaneuvering his colleagues before expeditiously stripping his constituents of their collective voice when he ramrodded his “I-owe-the-Koch Brothers” agenda down their throats without so much as a “let’s talk about it like grown-ups”.

Unreceptive to any form of negotiation, Walker made it clear from the start that he wasn’t interested in the opinions of the very people who’d democratically elected him to represent and serve them, even when those voters vehemently jumped up and down in opposition to his rights-stripping legislation. And the fact that Walker’s rights-stripping measure had absolutely no bearing on his campaign promises of fiscal responsibility made his imperialistic approach to the issue all the more dehumanizing.

Apparently the new face of Tea Party democracy has donned the mask of Napoleon Bonaparte, dictator and self-declared Emperor; and one whom many would assert was the antithesis of democracy.

Maybe Walker simply forgot who was paying him to be their governor, but we hardly think so. As soon as Walker removed his taxpaying population from the equation in one fell swoop of his governor’s sceptre, it became quite clear that the man hadn’t forgotten who pays him at all - especially when we follow the flow of money along his campaign trail.

Walker has ultimately shown the state of Wisconsin -and the entire nation for that matter- what Harry S. Truman really meant when he said “the buck stops here”. In fact, all indicators are that Walker is vigorously keeping his Tea Party promises of fiscal responsibility even now. Unfortunately for the citizens of Wisconsin, that sense of fiscal responsibility has little to do with them, and everything to do with serving the needs, wants and desires of his financial backers.

To be honest, or not to be honest... ...or is that just a stupid question, because Napoleon was of the opinion that “the surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man”. And while Napoleon also believed that stupidity wasn't a handicap in politics, everyone knows that no one goes into politics to go poor.

What is most disconcerting about Walker’s actions thus far is that no one can really be sure whether his unyielding position is merely the result of a righteous need to champion the cave-man cause of Reaganomics no matter the cost; or if he’s been lethally infected with a new strain of the fungus-amungus called the “Koch Bros spores”, which would irreversibly turn his empty shell of a body into an American variation of the Zombie Ants of Brazil, and a spore-spreading minion of the Koch Brothers.

A quick glance in the rear view mirror at Walker’s election campaign contributors shows us just how persuasive a cup of tea steeped in 43,000 spores can be. Evidently the more spores he slurped up, the faster he rose and the stronger he believed himself to be.

Frankly, it would be naïve to think that power didn’t come at a price, but with great power also comes great responsibility. Some would call that walking the line, which seems to be a notion very unfamiliar to Walker.

Now that the damage has been done, what we'd like to know is who keeps feeding the fungus-amungus and how is it that the "Koch Bros spores" continue to thrive? Isn't there a way for voters to starve the fungus out?

Bribe politicians and legislate the terms = Control the money and rule the world. See what we had to say about it two years ago at ‘In The Rear View Mirror’ April 13, 2009 posting "Greed Goes Underground".

The Goddess of Finance Takes Center Stage

Given the number of comments and inquiries we've received for more information about our amazing avatar, the "Goddess of Finance", we thought it was time to formally introduce her creator Artist KAd Collins. 

Goddess of Finance © Copyright by Artist, KAd Collins.
To find out more about the artist, go to Artist KAd Collins or KAd's Etsy Studio.

Artist KAd Collins is currently working on two new collections for release sometime in 2012 and 2013. If you are interested in becoming a collector, contact the artist directly. 

Billz Above (DS)

We had a dream……and in that dream we found ourselves trapped deep within the thronging temple of temptation known as New York City’s Times Square as X-P “W” (definition below) shouted down a fiery sermon from the heavens above via skyscraping Jumbo-Trons, proclaiming, "People! Spend more to save America, and you too, shall be saved!".

The mesmerized crowd around us stared upward as every subconscious mind on Times Square hypnotically absorbed the almighty message meant to mobilize them into martyrdom and saving the world with excessive consumption without thought of the cost.

Just when it seemed the crowd had been fully converted to consume without consequence, the sound of music started to reverberate loudly off of the buildings bordering the Square. Millions of glassy eyes dropped to watch as the ‘Not Buying It Band’ began to march into Times Square from 42nd Street flamboyantly followed by the Reverend Billy and his ‘Stop Shopping Gospel Choir’ who were singing out their “Stop Shopping” theme song as if our very souls depended on it.

Our dream then showed the crowd’s truth-seeking migration toward the televangelist front-man for the ‘Church of Life After Shopping’ to hear what this proselyte had to say. The Reverend Billy was not only a man who looked like Elvis, talked like Elvis, but refused to shop like Elvis; he was a man with a serious, life-changing message.

Reverend Billy declared us to be in the midst of the “Shopocalypse”, and he wasn’t talking fire and brimstone. It was time, according to the Reverend, to slay the dragon and replace the Devil’s holy days of Black Friday and Boxing Day with sanctioned boycotts and “Buy Nothing” days.

When the crowd began to jeer and hurl their credit cards at him in protest, Reverend Billy’s body lurched forward without warning, then it began to writhe and shake uncontrollably as he lapsed into a credit card exorcism by way of response. As the exorcism wound down, the crowd shifted and moved into sheepish retreat with their recovered credit cards - CRV codes irretrievably obscured and PIN numbers permanently erased from memory.

And then we woke up and realized that we’ve been sold down the river. And we’re not talking trickle down.

Apparently the bill of goods we’ve been sold has strategically passed the buck onto the credit card balances of those who can least afford it by seducing them into thinking that they must buy, buy, and buy some more in order to save America’s economy. Yet it seems that those with the financial means to put a serious dent in the nation’s obscene deficit by simply paying their fair share of tax get to have it both ways because the more the rest of us spend, the higher their bottom line, and the more they get to keep.

What we really want to know, though, is if every citizen were to run their personal finances like corporate America, how would life in America and the economy look then?

We generously lend credit to the tireless work of the charismatic Reverend Billy and his Church of Life After Shopping. We’ve enjoyed his message immensely.

Control the money, rule the world. Read between the lines and learn how to take your power back in our ‘Dream Sequence’ October 4, 2010 posting "More Moves To Dominate The World".

Happy New Year!

May this coming year be filled with infinite possibilities and countless blessings.

“Grand Canyon”.
Oil on canvas (4½” x 4½”).
© Copyright by Artist, KA Collins.
To purchase this original oil painting, simply click over to KA’s Etsy Studio.
To find out more about the artist, go to ArtistKACollins.

Create your own reality show in 2011. Guidelines can be found in our ‘Dream Sequence’ November 29, 2009 posting "The Art of Reality”.

T.S.A.: It’s Our Business To Touch Yours

The Thanksgiving season has arrived, and with the holiday season comes the opportunity for many of us to slow down long enough to look back in the rear view mirror and reminisce with our loved ones about the cornucopian days of old, while giving thanks for barely surviving year 2010 of the Great Depression.

As we watch the price of gas and travel predictably increase in the weeks leading up to every holiday season, we’ve come to understand that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is to the travel industry what the Friday after Thanksgiving is to the retail business - namely, the busiest day of the year.

This year is no exception, yet it seems we have last year's underwear bomber to thank for this year's viral travel advisories warning all flyers that airport security has gone "hands-on".

All of the recent brouhaha about passengers being subjected to invasive body searches in exchange for the privilege of boarding a plane with an expensive ticket bought and paid for has us convinced that many travelers will simply explore alternative ways of getting where they want to go with dignity intact.

Considering the hardline screening options flyers have to choose from these days, we can hardly be surprised by the thousands of formal complaints that have already been filed by indignant travelers who believe their rights and bodily temples have been violated.

It doesn't seem to matter whether you choose the Rapiscan radioactive see-you-naked photo op, or opt for the personal touch with a full-body fondling that has been specially designed to intimately search every type of physique - such as "The Gentlemen's Junket" which includes the old “ball and taint lift 'n shift”, or the "For Ladies Only" inspection featuring the "camel toe us apart and 'are they real?' breast test".

Whatever screening option you choose (and some lucky passengers may even get to have both), you'll be able to board that airplane with a false sense of security, and of course, the "T.S.A. Approved" inspection stamp conspicuously branded on your hindquarters.

In its arrogance, the T.S.A. has clearly failed in the customer relations department. Perhaps the T.S.A. didn’t think it necessary to provide the population that pays for its existence any kind of advanced preparation, let alone a touch of pavlovian reinforcement through a basic T.S.A. P.S.A. propaganda campaign devised to soothe what they should’ve anticipated: citizen concerns about rights violations, health risks, and the protection of children who have been taught to never let strangers touch them.

After numerous internet postings went viral, giving viewers access to live and uncensored footage that had been recorded at airport sausage factories across the land by average travelers, potential passengers got to see firsthand what to really expect when they step into a T.S.A. security screening line this holiday season. The T.S.A. has since been forced to play defense and do the damage control dance. It ain’t pretty, and it may be their un-doing.

Few should be surprised when we begin to see the more customer-oriented, passenger-friendly travel alternatives experience a significant increase in revenue, right about the time the commercial airlines get hit with substantial financial losses once again as they stand on the sidelines and complacently permit the T.S.A. to man-handle their paying passengers, pilots, and flight crews.

The most sickening part of this drama being played out on “security theater” (courtesy of Jeffrey Goldberg) is that everyone knows, even the T.S.A., that the terrorists are way ahead of current policies and procedures. Terrorism has already been found packing its explosive junk all the way up its back trunk where no one can find it without a body cavity search, not even the Rape-i-Scan.

Capitalism may not save us but it does have a tendency to one-up terrorism, for with capitalism comes creative innovation used to create cash flow not martyrs, and just in time for the holiday gift giving season.

There probably isn't one guy on your gift list who wouldn't love hearing this every time he gets a phone call (courtesy of John Tyner): “if you touch my junk, I’m gonna have you arrested!”. And if his ‘junk’ is extra special, you might even consider giving your favorite business traveler a pair of radiation briefs with an x-ray blocking fig leaf shield.

Before we know it, those see-you-naked full body scans they say are never stored on a hard drive will be put to good use with the launch of a few trendy websites that’ll make celebrity sex videos seem passe'.

So it looks like this year will see us celebrating close to home, where we’ll be busy giving a special thanks for the fact that we couldn’t afford to fly anywhere anyway, even if we were in the mood to get felt up by strangers. Not this year, honey, we have a headache.

Courtesy of smart phones and the internet, the road to transparency has now become a two-way street. Transparently map out your trip with a little help from of our ‘In The Rear View Mirror’ May 2, 2010 posting "Trolling For Transparency".

Which View Is Witch? (DS)

We had a dream……and in that dream we found ourselves stepping over a troll bridge into the enchanted woods of Winterthur with nothing but the moon to light our way. The forbidden faerie ring to our right was veiled in a thick midnight mist, and slipped by unnoticed as the spirits of the woods urged us forward along a serpentine pathway.

It was the eerie sound of chanting, emanating from deep in the mist, that stopped us dead in our tracks.

Our dream then took a sharp right, off the beaten path, in the direction of the faerie ring where a yellow light was faintly glowing through the heavy haze. We sucked in our breath when we eventually caught sight of the chantress, and then we quietly crouched, hiding in the shadows of a mushroom to witness with morbid fascination her clandestine mid-term ritual.

While it should’ve come as no surprise for us to witness the magick making of Christine O’Donnell since she'd undoubtedly managed to cast a spell over the people of Delaware, it's just that we never really expected to catch her in the act in the woods. 

Well God works in mysterious ways and Christine truly believed she could secretly help Him help her win that seat in the Senate. And it sure helped that no one had ever officially mandated there be any separation between church and state. It also helped that she was a member of the FOXy Palin coven. This gave her the benefit of a direct line to the spirit of Ronald Reagan, and if an astrological roadmap could help him successfully navigate a presidency, then the Book of Shadows could certainly help her sideline all of the challengers and critics she'd encountered on the way to Washington.

In a rare "Ah-Ha!" moment, Christine realized the best way to render her detractors impotent would be to simply change their point of view.

On an altar dripping in blue hen’s blood, laid O’Donnell’s opened spell book, brilliantly lit by an arc of five blazing black candles. Next to the altar stood Christine, glistening with sweat in a red business suit, busily working her magick while stirring the bubbling cauldron before her with focused intent. Her spellbinding witches' brew appeared to be a simmering mixture of rich milk, sweet goldenrod, peach blossoms and holly berries, potently finished off with a transformational pinch of DuPont chemicals. The heat from the fire beneath the pot was so intense that it even reached out to sear us in the shadows.

Like the five points on a pentagram, we watched as Christine O’Donnell commanded the spirits of her naysayers to spend one episode inside the bodies of the five women of “The View”.

Dick Cheney got to feel with heavy dreads the caring heartbeat of Whoopi Goldberg.

Bill O’Reilly got to watch his pinhead explode through the patriotic eyes of Joy Behar.

Karl Rove got to learn how to skillfully navigate America’s crossroads with dignity through the filtered lens of Barbara Walters.

Mike Castle got to taste the bitterness of defeat on the gracious tongue of Sherri Shepard.

Eric Cantor got to shoot off his young gun while trying not to repeat the mistakes of the past as he admired a body that reminded him of his feminine side, and obviously, Elizabeth Hasselbeck. 

Their special guest that day was Alec Baldwin who happened to know the five ladies of “The View” well enough to recognize when they weren’t themselves. And when Mike Castle in Sherri’s voice asked Alec to define what it meant to be unmanly, Alec quipped with annoyance that this was not a bake off and suggested that Mike go get his man-pants on. As Alec stormed off the set, stage left, he snidely told the others in passing to man-up.

And then we woke up and realized that anyone raised by Bozo the Clown has some pretty big shoes to fill; and just because one acts like a clown, doesn’t necessarily mean they don't have the instincts of a fox.

Have we too just been given a new view of extremism?

Merry meet, merry part, merry meet again. Happy Samhain!

Only one view can be the right view and it can be found at our ‘In The Rear View Mirror’ November 17, 2009 posting "Apple Pie Goes Rogue".

More Moves To Dominate The World (DS)

We had a dream……and in that dream we found ourselves struggling alongside a working class crew trying to regain control of a schooner bounty that had initially been charted for Atlantic City, but was instead violently blown off course, rudder snapping in a lurch. We heard the tattered sails shutter with purpose as the hull heaved and bobbed directionless through ravenous waters that grew more dangerous with each billowing swell.

No one saw it coming. Or at least that’s what they all said. It was as if the atmosphere had turned on a dime, right about the time the East Wind began squalling with subversion. One minute we were coasting through prosperous trade routes on confident sails bloated with warm sea breezes, not a storm cloud in sight; and the next saw our ship taking on water so fast that sinking appeared inevitable.

As we scurried to bail out the water one bucket at a time, we never even noticed the growing wall of water that was mobilizing to put us in our place. And when that financial tsunami finally got our full attention was when it capsized our boat without remorse somewhere in the middle of the Devil's Triangle, where it dumped us unceremoniously into a very rough sea without so much as a safety net.

We managed to keep our heads above water just long enough to see a monstrous whale the size of China circle and descend with rapacious jaws intent upon swallowing us up.

Our dream then dropped us deep within the belly of the whale where we could hear the reverberating voices of those trapped around us long before we could actually see them.

From the surrounding conversation, we soon learned that the whale had a name, ¥uaning More, although the group regularly referred to it as simply ‘MORE’.

The more we listened, the more we understood how much MORE prided itself on being the hardest working predator in the sea. It thrived on the chaos that comes from war and ruin, and there was no time for rest because voracious accumulation is a 24/7 enterprise. MORE was cleverly adroit at tickling desperate ears with politeness and dangled promises, a master in the fine art of bait and switch, and not above making thy neighbor beg. Apparently MORE honored only one golden rule: “he who has the gold, makes the rules”, so consequently refused to play by anyone’s rules but its own.

When our eyes finally adjusted to the darkness that held us hostage, we became better acquainted with our fellow captives, including a few Pleasure Island castaways.

Wall Street GetOver

This GetOver could do little more than boast about being the original woodcarver, when in fact he was the rainmaker who brought on the storm.

Pinocchio

Pinocchio had always dreamed of having a life with no strings, and MORE had slyly seduced him into thinking he could have his cadmium and eat it too. Well someone once said that Pinocchio was Italian for a reason, and this Pinocchio had absolutely no intention of ever being made in China, for he had a plan. A strategy designed to beat MORE at its own game. Pinocchio figured that the more he lied, the longer his nose would get, until eventually its length would allow him to pry open the jaws of MORE just enough to slip away relatively unscathed.

Caracas Cricket

No matter how hard he tried to stop the incessant chirping, Caracas Cricket just couldn’t keep his knees from rubbing everyone the wrong way. He spent most of his chirping hours looking up through MORE’s blowhole into the night sky as he wished upon the stars for higher oil prices and for someone to rub just a little bit of that oil between his knees.

StromRuski

Someone has to pull the strings behind the biggest show on Earth and StromRuski believed himself to be the perfect puppet master.  

Goodluck Jonah and his simpleton sidekick GideGaddafi

Goodluck Jonah may have gotten his start as Honest John but he realized pretty early on that honesty wasn’t what put him on the winning side, it was self-made luck. And GideGaddafi was a blustering windbag who'd shown himself to be an agreeable feline comrade because he was agile enough to blow in the direction of any winning wind and still land on his feet.

AhmadineDonkey

Had it not been for that obnoxious braying which never seemed to stop, we probably wouldn’t have even noticed AhmadineDonkey sulking off on the side alone. Someone lurking behind MORE's ribcage tried to shut him up by throwing out a few USB worms which he gobbled up with gusto. The braying thankfully stopped when AhmadineDonkey began to hawk up stuxnet code, then proceeded to vocally reproduce "myrtus, myrtus, myrtus, ..." without control. 

Mingling amongst the group ensnared by MORE’s bottomless pit were plenty of other nameless naughty boys in business suits who'd been sucked in from every nation throughout the world. “But I run a business”, they all declared defensively, “if somebody’s buying, I’m selling." Apparently that’s their story and they’re sticking to it.

And then we woke up and realized that when we whittle away at our own foundation, the structure will invariably weaken and the resulting gaps will beg to be filled with MORE.

After all of this we can't help wondering, does the Blue Fairy really have the power to turn those trapped inside the belly of the whale into true human beings? 

More knows no bounds in our "Dream Sequence" January 24, 2010 posting "Walled Off".